Packaging machine



Nov. 17, 1970 H. G. GENTRY PACKAGING MACHINE Filed July 24, 1968 M 8 9 221 g, j 22 20 A M /3 //Vl /v70&

HERA/0ND 6 GE/vmY ATTOR/VE) United States Patent l 3,540,185 PACKAGING MACHINE Hermond G. Gentry, Atlanta, Ga., assignor to The Mead Corporation, a corporation of Ohio Filed July 24, 1968, Ser. No. 747,358 Int. Cl. B6511 11/10 US. Cl. 53-48 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A packaging machine wherein a wrapper type carton is moved along a predetermined path together with its contents is provided with an endless element whose working reach is movable in parallelism with the path of movement of the wrapper and its contents. A transverse tightener element is mounted at one end thereof on the endless element and a tightener lug engageable with a part of the blank is slidably mounted on the other end of the transverse tightener element. A fixed cam guide is disposed to engage a part of the tightener lug and is configured to impart sliding movement thereto along the transverse tightener element so as to engage and impart carton tightening movement to the carton wrapper. Disjointable holding means is arranged to prevent inadvertent dislodgment of the tightener lug from the transverse tightener element but is yieldable in response to the application of a prede termined force thereto so as to accommodate ready removal and mounting of the lug on the transverse tightener element. A support guide is disposed underneath the working reach of the endless element and is arranged to support at least a part of the weight of the transverse tightener element and a guide track is disposed above the end of the transverse tightener element remote from the lug and serves to determine the path of movement thereof, the support and guide tracks being disposed so as to accommodate upward movement of the end of the transverse tightener lug on which the slidable tightener lug is mounted and to accommodatae slight twisting of the working reach of the endless element.

By this invention, dilferent sizes and styles of carton wrappers may be accommodated by the ready removaland mounting of the tightener lug on the associated transversely disposed element, such interchangeability being possible without the use of tools of any kind. Furthermore, persons having little skill or knowledge of the principles of operation of the packaging machine can by this invention convert the machine for use in conjunction with primary packages and blanks of different styles and sizes.

According to this invention, a transversely disposed tightener element is secured at one end to an endless element whose working reach is arranged to move in parallelism with the path of movement of a wrapper type packaging blank and its contents and a tightener lug is slidably mounted on the transversely disposed tightener element in such manner as to engage a part of the wrapper and to impart tightening movement thereto due to engagement between a fixed cam guide and a part of the tightener lug and yieldable holding means is arranged to prevent inadvertent dislodgment of the tightener lug from the transverse tightener element.

For a better understanding of the invention reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which FIG. 1 is a side view of a part of an endless element together with the tightener element and associated locking means of a packaging machine of known type; FIG. 2 is a plan view of a portion of the structure shown in FIG.

' Patented Nov. 17, 1970 1 which structure is rotated from the orientation depicted in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the arrangement depicted in FIG. 2 taken along the line designated 3-3 in FIG. 2; and in which FIG. 4 is an end view of the left hand end of the arrangement shown in FIG. 3.

In the drawings and particularly in FIG. 1 an endless element is generally designated by the numeral 1. This endless element constitutes preferably an endless chain made up of links 2 and 3 held together by pins 4 in conventional fashion. The chain 1 is rotatably supported by a suitable sprocket generally designated by the numeral 5 at one end and by a corresponding sprocket at the other end. One of the sprockets ordinarily is a driven element and the other sprocket ordinarily is an idler element. Suitable carton locking means generally designated by the numeral 6 is arranged to move cyclically and a component of such movement is in the vertical direction. Locking element 6 is operable in known manner to engage appropriate locking tabs formed in a panel of a wrapper and to drive such locking tabs through suitable openings defined in another associated face contacting panel of the wrapper so as to secure the wrapper about its contents. For a more detailed description of the locking element 6 reference may be had to US. Pat. No. 2,809,486. Furthermore, for a more detailed description of the blank of the type to which this invention is particularly applicable, reference maybe had to the aforementioned patent.

As can best be seen from FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, a plurality of transversely disposed tightener elements generally designated by the numeral 7 are secured to the chain 1 and are movable therewith. For example, and with reference to FIG. 3, a pair of L-shaped brackets 8 and 9 are secured by the pin 10 to the chain 1. Bracket 8 is disjointably secured to transverse tightener element 7 by a tightening screw 11 while L-shaped bracket 9 is disjointably secured to tightener element 7 by disjointable screw 12. The working reach of the endless element 1 is supported by a supporting element 13 in known manner.

For the purpose of affording support for at least a part of the weight of the tightener element 7, a support track 14 is fixed in position underneath the path of movement of the transverse tightener element 7 and intermediate the ends thereof. As is obvious from the drawing, support track 14- is disposed generally alongside support element 13.

In order to determine the general disposition of the end of the tightener element 7 remote from the endless element 1, a guide track 15 is fixed in position immediately above the right hand end of the transverse element 7 as is shown particularly in FIGS. 2 and 3.

In order to engage and tighten a wrapper type carton about its contents, a tightener lug 16 is slidably mounted on the left hand end of each transverse tightener element 7. Tightener lug 16 is provided with a specially configured upper portion 17 which is configured to engage a tightening aperture formed in the carton blank is known manner.

In order to impart sliding movement toward the left to tightener lug 16 and to the remaining tightener lugs such as 18, 19 and 20, a fixed cam guide 21 is disposed to engage a part such as cam follower 22 mounted on tightener lug 16. Thus movement of endless chain 1 from left to right as viewed in FIG. 1 imparts movement toward the left as viewed in FIG. 3 to the tightener lug 16 due to the disposition and configuration of cam guide 21.

For the purpose of preventing inadvertent dislodgment of tightener lug 16 from the left hand end of transverse tightener element 7 yieldable holding means is provided in accordance with a feature of this invention. Such holding means may comprise a leaf spring 23 affixed to transverse tightener element 7 by means such as screw 24. In ad dition a holding pin 25 is affixed to the left hand end of leaf spring 23 and is arranged to move within a pasageway 26 formed in one prong such as 27 of tightener element 7. Of course another prong 28 is a part of the transverse tightener element 7 and as is obvious from FIG. 4, tightener lug 16 in cross section of generally I-shaped configuration, the prongs 27 and 28 of tightener element 7 being disposed on opposite sides of the tightener lug 16.

As can be readily understood from FIG. 4, the left hand rounded end 29 of pin 25- is arranged to engage the I-shaped central part 30 of tightener lug 16. Preferably a small groove such as 31 is formed near the end of central portion '30 of tightener lug 16. Leaf spring 23 is constructed so that the normal force exerted thereby tending to urge pin 25 toward the left as viewed in FIG. 4 is adequate to prevent inadvertent dislo'dgment of the tightener lug 16 from the end of transverse tightener element 7. On the other hand if it is desired to remove this tightener lug 16, the application of a pre-determined force thereto manually or otherwise simply causes the tightener lug 16 to force the pin 25 as viewed in FIG. 4 to move slightly toward the right and thus to release the tightener lug 16 so that it may be removed.

Of course the tightener lug such as 16 may be replaced by some other tightener lug such as 18, 19 or 20 if desired.

In connection with the removal and replacement of tightener lugs and because of the limited space available near the lugs the left hand end of transverse tightener element 7 is adapted to be elevated to facilitate removal and replacement of the tightener lug due to the fact that the support track 14 is disposed underneath the tightener lug 7 and the guide track 15 is disposed above the right hand end of transverse tightener element 7. Of course upward movement of transverse tightener element 7 imparts a slight twisting action to the chain 1 which is accommodated by the normal tension of chain 1. Under normal conditions the weight of the packages is suflicient to insure that the tightener elements do not swing up inadvertently.

As will be obvious from FIG. 2, different styles and sizes of cartons are readily accommodated by the different types of lugs such as 16', 18, 19 and 20 and suitable routine techniques for choosing one type of lug or another and for spacing such lug relative to chain 1 may be employed in conjunction with this invention.

The embodiments of the invention in which a exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defied as follows:

1. A packaging machine comprising means for moving a wrapper and its contnets along a predetermined path, an endless element having a working reach movable in substantial parallelism with said path, a transverse tightener element movable with said endless element and having an end portion disposed underneath said wrapper and its contents, a tightener lug slidably mounted on said tightener element and arranged to engage a part of the wrapper, a fixed cam guide disposed to engage a part of said tightener lug and arranged to impart transverse sliding movement thereto thereby to impart a tightening force to the wrapper, and yieldable holdingmeans interrelating said transverse tightener element and said lug and forming a disjointable connection therebetween so as to hold said lug against inadvertent dislodgment from said transverse element, said holding means being yieldable sufficiently to accommodate quick removal of said lug upon the application of a predetermined force.

2. A machine according to claim 1 wherein said yieldable holding means comprises an abutment element movably mounted on said transverse tightener element and biased toward a position of engagement with a part of said tightener lug.

3. A machine according to claim 2 wherein said abutment element comprises an elongated pin slidably mounted in a complementary passageway formed in said transverse tightener element and wherein said pin is mounted on one end of a leaf spring secured at its other end to said transverse tightener element.

4. A machine according to claim 1 wherein said transverse tightener element comprises a pronged structure and wherein said tightener lug is formed with a substantially I-shaped cross-sectional configuration interposed between the prongs of said transverse tightener element and slidably thereon.

5. A machine according to claim 4 wherein a passageway is formed in one of said prongs and wherein an abutment pin is disposed in said passageway and normally arranged so that one end protrudes therefrom to a position of engagement with a part of said tightener lug.

6. A machine according to claim 5 wherein a leaf spring is secured to the other end of said abutment pin and wherein said spring is secured to said transverse tightener element.

7. A machine according to claim 1 wherein said transverse tightener element is disjointly secured to said endless element by at least one substantially L-shaped bracket.

8. A machine according to claim 1 wherein a lower support track is fixed in position underneath the working reach of said endless element in general parallelism therewith and in engagement with said transverse tightener element intermediate the ends thereof said track being effective to support at least some of the weight of said transverse element and to determine the level of movement thereof.

9. A machine according to claim 8 wherein a fixed guide track is disposed above the path of movement of said transverse tightener element and in the region of the end thereof remote from said tightener lug, said guide track and said support track being disposed to accommodate upward movement of the end of said transverse tightener element which is associated with said tightener lug and the resulting slight twisting of the working reach of said endless element so as to facilitate ready mounting and removal of said tightener lug from said transverse tightener element.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,751,730 6/1956 Gentry 53-48 X 2,809,486 10/1957 Gentry 53376 3,045,401 7/1962 Ganz 5348 THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner R. L. SPRUILL, Assistant Examiner U.S. c1. X.R. s3 201, 209 

